Monday, May 9, 2011

Design Recap: Frederick

Greg Benson as Frederick

This bad-ass dragon mask is for Frederick, the "third man" of Willmore and Belville's man possy, and wooer of Valeria. The idea was conceived with Liz in conjunction with the his male ensemble (Knight and Pirate) and his romantic interest, Valeria. I sculpted and painted this masks alongside of Valeria's Bird mask, in attempts to establish a similar shape and palette between the two. Dragons are deceptively difficult: it is very hard to create features that are distinctively "dragon" without the fire breathing (I tried very hard to avoid elements of the dog and lizard world). I based the basic shape off of some other successful examples of dragon masks. Other elements showed themselves as I worked in the clay: ears, horns, the strong jaw.

Clay Molds.

For the tone of the mask, I wanted something that captured both a sense of danger and a sense of fun. The gold accents really add a sense of majesty. Even though this mask never appears onstage with Valeria's bird mask, the obviously are in the same family, and serves to tie them together.